1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to hair dryers, more particularly to electrical powered hand-held dryer having a foldable hand grip and a power cord extending therefrom to connect it to an electric power source.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In most cases, a hand-held dryer which has electric means for producing a flow of heated air is provided with a power cord extending from a housing. The power cord associated with the dryer may be sometimes a hindrance when the dryer is to be packed or stored and thus annoy a user as in the case of carrying it on a trip. There have been proposed hand-held air dryers which are aimed to overcome the above problem. FIG. 1 shows a typical example of such a dryer which comprises a flat-shaped housing 1 provided with a peripheral groove 2 adapted to receive a wound power cord therein. Although the dryer of such type is designed to be compact in size as well as to provide means for receiving the power cord wound around the periphery of the dryer, it is obviously difficult not to have a hand grip extending outwardly from the housing by the structural necessity of providing the peripheral groove for the wound power cord. This structural limitation of not having the hand grip to be attached to the housing will bring about another problem in handling the dryer, the user has no other way to grasp the housing itself to possibly close the air inlet to outlet by his hand. This results in less amount of the air flow blown off from the outlet, or in the danger of the user getting burnt in the hand if placed closely adjacent to the outlet.
While on the other hand, hand-held dryers with a foldable hand grip are prominent on the market for facilitating the handling and for the purpose of occupying little space when packed, however, these dryers with a foldable hand grip seems to disregard the means for receiving the power cord in such a manner to neatly arrange the power cord when out of use or when packed. Therefore, the power cord is still found to detract from the packing or storing purpose of the hair dryer.
Accordingly, it is most desirable for a hand held hair dryer which is required to occupy little space when packed to have means for receiving the power cord as well to have a foldable hand grip for facilitating the handling of the hair dryer. The present invention has been accomplished to combine the above two requirements for a hand-held dryer and to provide useful features, which will be discussed hereinafter.